Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Pavarotti’s debut
La bohème
(1893-5, rev. 1896)
Opera in four quadri (scenes)
Rodolfo – Luciano Pavarotti (tenor)
Mimi – Alberta Pellegrini (soprano)
Musetta – Bianca Bellesia (mezzo-soprano)
Marcello – Vito Mattioli (baritone)
Colline – Dmitri Nabokov (bass)
Schaunard – Walter de Ambrosis (baritone)
Benoit and Alcindoro – Guido Pasella (bass)
Orchestra & Chorus of the Teatro Municipale di Reggio Emilia/Francesco
Molinari-Pradelli
rec. live 29 April 1961
Reviewed as Download 320 kbps MP3
REVITALIZED CLASSICS [105.00]
La bohème is said to have been born in litigation, as both
Puccini and his contemporary Ruggiero Leoncavallo decided to compose
operas on the theme of Parisian starving artists. The first we hear
of Puccini’s interest in the subject is in March 1893 when he
and Leoncavallo engaged in a public quarrel over the rights to Murger’s
work. At this time the team of librettists of Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi
Illica (who had collaborated with Puccini previously for Manon Lescaut)
had already been engaged and worked had started in earnest. Puccini’s
La bohème was premiered on 1st February 1896 at
the Teatro Regio in Turin, conducted by no less than Arturo Toscanini.
It was received in a cool manner and not very successful to start with,
however it soon entered the international repertoire. Today, it is one
of the top three or four works most frequently performed in the great
opera houses of the world. In the meantime, as Giacosa and Illica began
to work with Puccini, Leoncavallo insisted in continuing working on
his own Bohème. He wrote the libretto himself, based on the
same source as Puccini’s. Leoncavallo’s opera was eventually
premiered, later than Puccini’s, at La Fenice, in Venice, on 6th
May 1897. Although there are unavoidable similarities, there are also
many differences in the music and voice allocation of the roles –
for example, Leoncavallo makes Marcello the leading tenor and Rodolfo
the baritone. His work was never as successful as Puccini’s and
although unfairly, it has been neglected and totally eclipsed by Puccini’s
La bohème.
Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) was the son of Fernando Pavarotti, a baker
and amateur tenor, and of Adele Venturi, a cigar factory worker. Luciano’s
father, Fernando, possessed a beautiful tenor voice but apparently never
pursued a singing career due to nervousness. Nevertheless his son did
and became one of the greatest tenors of the 20th Century,
often called the King among tenors, and one of the most admired, celebrated
and successful opera singers of all times. His voice instantly identifiable
by almost everyone even if not an opera fan, was noticeable for its
exciting upper register, sparkling, youthful tone and as if tailor-made
for the operas of Verdi, Bellini and Donizetti. Additionally later,
as it darkened slightly through age, his voice became also ideal for
Puccini and the Verismo composers.
Readers may remember I recently reviewed
a Revitalized Classics remastering of Nellie Melba’s farewell
concert at Covent Garden in 1926. The present recording is another initiative
from Revitalized Classics and not just another recounting of the countless
existing versions of Puccini’s La bohème. It is actually Luciano
Pavarotti’s original opera début, which was in La bohème
on 29th April 1961 at the Teatro Municipale di Reggio Emilia, a town
in Northern Italy. The remastering was based on a private recording
of the performance, which was released on an unofficial label and in
limited numbers, on plain packaging under the label of “Collector’s
Edition”. According to information on the Revitalized Classics
website, this recording was originally in a very narrow stereo rather
than monophonic, which enabled widening of the existing stereo spread
after the normal remastering steps. I am assuming this means the listening
experience is enhanced but a little more about that later in the review.
At the time of his début Pavarotti was a young man of twenty-five and
not yet the household name he would become but the unique, instantly
recognisable voice was of course already there, with all its magnificent
power. In this remastered recording by Revitalized Classics the voices
of Pavarotti (in the role of Rodolfo) and of Mattioli (as Marcello)
can be heard reasonably well but the orchestra often sounds as a “muddle”
of background noise for lack of a better word. This gets worse when
the whole ensemble is singing. It is then almost impossible to distinguish
who is who, what they are saying or what instruments can be perceived
in the orchestra. I heard this download in mono and then in stereo via
the Bluetooth I have set up on my Hi-Fi system. The quality is then
greatly improved. So my advice would be to listen to it in stereo only.
If you do it in mono I’m sure you will be disappointed as I was.
I must admit I had expected more, meaning a better quality from this
particular remastering, as it is from 1961 (not so old as Melba’s
where the original is from 1926) but I was a little disappointed, especially
in the sections of the opera where there are various singers on stage
or when the orchestra is at full power. Having said all that, this download
does become rewarding and that is when one gets to the famous solo arias
or some of the duets. Pavarotti’s rendition of Che gelida
manina is not only excellent but it does also show the beauty of
his voice, the easiness of the high notes and the crystal clear tone
that was his trademark and made him immediately recognisable even in
his later years.
I saw and heard Pavarotti live in the 1990s and although his voice was
still extraordinary and he was then the stuff of legend, it did no longer
have the easiness and excitement of his younger years. This remastering
by Revitalized Classics gave me the opportunity of listening to the
twenty-five year old Pavarotti and for it I’m grateful. The experience
was rewarding and I could fully grasp why he became such a household
name and one of the most celebrated super star opera singers of all
times.
There is a link to the Revitalized Classics website at the end of the
review but please be aware that you can only access it in the EU or
the UK due to copyrights. Some can also be downloaded from Amazon UK
as MP3 or to stream on Spotify. Outside Europe it should be possible
to access some of the downloads via Amazon. All the downloads come with
Revitalized Classics own art work and some are more attractive than
others. I listened to Pavarotti’s Debut in La Bohème
in 320 kbps MP3 but there are other formats available on the Revitalized
Classics site. On Amazon it is MP3 only.
To summarise, I would say I enjoyed this remastering of a rarity though
I was also a little disappointed during some sections of the opera.
Overall, this recording is a curiosity, a compelling one, as it gives
the listener a measure of the range, beauty and clarity of Pavarotti’s
voice at the beginning of his career when he was only twenty-five years
old.
Margarida Mota-Bull
Margarida writes more than just reviews, check it online at Flowingprose.com
